A report published by the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) entitled, Department for Transport: Lessons from the West Coast Work franchise competition, points towards a basic lack of common sense combined with a failure to account for risk, leading to the scrapping of the procurement program.

Civil servants according to the report failed to accurately access the risk involved for each bidders proposal.

PAC has criticised the DfT in the past for procurement failings, including the failure of Metronet, which went into administration after it failed to deliver spending requirements.

In failing to follow best practice the transport department suffered from a lack of accountability, with Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the PAC, saying the government departmnet:“failed to respond appropriately to early warning signs that things were going wrong.”

PAC also highlighted a lack of key skills within the DfT which contributed to a lack of procurement understanding and effective oversight, due to budget constraints.

West Coast Rail Line procurement failure caused by ‘major’ public service failures